Challenges vs Consequences
by rats xp
Summary: After winning the Nations for the Seigaku team, Ryoma heads to America to try and find new people to challenge and improve his tennis skills to the next level. But what happens when he can't get a certain twin-braid wearing, clumsy girl out of his head?
1. Chapter 1

AN: hey this is my first fanfic so me gentle with me but I will accept flamers because they can help me improve on my writing skills and thought processing.

"talking" & _thoughts are in italics_

* * *

Challenges vs. Consequences

Chapter 1

*Shu….*tatatatata….*doka

These were the only sounds on the tennis court as the final continued on, with the tennis ball sailing between the two competitors.

For Ryoma, the sound of the tennis ball hitting against a tennis racket, combined with the silence of their surroundings, was pure bliss; yet he kept getting a nagging sensation in the back of his mind that something was missing. Well, whatever it was it could wait till after the match was over.

His opponent was a tall, nineteen year-old, with spiky light brown hair, red eyes and was wearing an AC-DC shirt with jeans and basic tennis shoes. His name was Rick, not that Ryoma really bothered to remember his name. All Ryoma cared about was whether or not this guy was good at tennis, which so far he had been putting up a somewhat decent fight, not that Ryoma would actually admit it aloud.

Shortly after the match had started, Ryoma was mildly surprised to find out that Rick was somewhat of a power player who favored moves like the buggy-whip and the brutaliser.

The guy managed to get two games from Ryoma, but Ryoma still won 6-2.

As the last ball hit the opponent's court, the crowd that had gathered to watch the unique spectacle started to clap and cheer as the young prodigy gathered his belongings to leave the street tennis courts. As Ryoma walked past the crowd, he thought he saw a certain timid girl with twin braids.

He stopped, and turned his body to face the crowd, to get a better look at whomever he thought he saw but no one was there anymore.

AN: hey read and review please!

Japanese sound effects

*Shu – Whoosh!

*Tatatatata – Running noises

* Doka - Smack


	2. Chapter 2

**AN**: ok, as requested by Kenny, here is a longer chapter 2. Moreover, I hope that the other chapters after this will be longer, but only time will tell.

Well without further ado, here is chapter 2.

"talking"

'personal thoughts'

* * *

Challenges vs Consequences

Chapter 2

(Normal POV)

As Ryoma walked back to his hotel, his thoughts kept going back to that moment of the courts and who he thought he saw.

(Ryoma's POV)

'I must be seeing things; there's no way she can be here in America when I know I left her back in Japan, along with the rest of our sempais, and those annoying Ichinen Trio.'

~Flashback~

(Ryoma's POV)

"_WHAT? You're LEAVING?" yelled Horio._

"_Hn," was all I said as I took a drink of my Ponta._

"_Why are you leaving, I mean you practically just got here?" asked Kachiro._

"_Yeah, Ryoma-sama, why are you leaving? What do you not like it here in Japan anymore?" wailed the annoying, pig-tailed girl, whose name I can never seem to remember. 'What was her name again...Tony...Tomo...Tonya? Whatever.'_

"_He's leaving to compete in the US Open, right Ryoma-kun?" asked the quietest of the group, a certain girl with twin braids who always tries to show up for my games, Sakuno Ryuzaki._

"_Hey, wait a minute. How would you know that Sakuno?" asked her friend (Tomo) while Horio shrieked,_

"_Is this true?"_

"_I know because I overheard Ryoma-kun talking about it with Grandma just before the Nationals started. Sorry for eavesdropping on your conversation Ryoma-kun." Sakuno apologized._

"_Hn" was my response. 'Why was she apologizing? She didn't do anything wrong?'_

_No offense Sakuno, but I want to ask Ryuzaki-sensei herself. Maybe you heard wrong?" the pig-tailed girl (Tomo) said._

_The others agreed and walked off to find the old hag, leaving me alone with Sakuno. I decided to go throw away my empty can of Ponta and Sakuno followed me. I could tell something was on her mind, but if she wasn't going to say what it was, then I wasn't going to ask._

"_R-Ryoma-kun?" she stuttered. 'She seems to do that a lot. I wonder why?'_

"_Hn."_

"_Will you be ok in America? I mean you will be traveling to and staying in America on your own. Will you be safe on your own?" she asked with worry filling her eyes. It almost looked like she was about to cry. 'Why would she be crying? Is she honestly THAT worried about me?'_

_To answer her questions, I handed her my racket._

"_Here, hold onto this. I will be back to get it after I win the US Open, so you had better take good care of it." I say in an annoyed voice._

_When I turn to leave, I can see in my peripheral vision that she was smiling while she held my racket to her chest._

"_Hai!" she says with enthusiasm and follows me out of the schoolyard._

~End of Flashback~

'I gave her my racket as a way to reassure her that I will be safe and that I will be coming back. So that she wouldn't worry so much and feel the need to make sure that, I was ok. Although, granted, I never thought she would have the guts, or the courage, to follow me; yet, I keep seeing her in places I know I shouldn't be seeing her at all.' (That is, if she really did stay behind?)

'The first place I thought I saw her was in the crowd at the airport when I first got here, and now I think I keep seeing her in the crowds that show up at my tennis matches. Why can't I seem to get her out of my head?'

'I mean, I left her my racket as a way of showing her that I would be coming back, but I only gave it to her in the first place because she looked so dang sad when she found out that I was leaving. That doesn't mean that I care about her or anything, she just looks better when she has a smile on her face than she does when she is on the verge of tears.'

'At any rate, with that to reassure her, she shouldn't have followed me here, right?...Nah, Sakuno would be too scared to get on an airplane and leave everything that she's ever known behind, just to follow me, no matter how much she may want to support me.'

(Normal POV)

Yet even with those thoughts settled, Ryoma still couldn't stop thinking about Sakuno; he was so caught-up in his own thoughts, that he failed to notice the shadow that was following him. If a passer-by saw the stranger's face, they would have thought it was an older version of the young boy he was following.

* * *

**AN**: sorry if Ryoma seems a bit OOC but I thinks sooooo CUTE to portray him as having doubts and ranting in his head, or to himself, sometimes XD

Anyway, hope you enjoyed it, now please read and review!


	3. Author's Note 2 (ch3 update status)

**AN:** yeah, sorry this isn't a chapter update, but I am about 1/3 - 1/2 way done with the next chapter and that includes being typed as well. anyway, I was wondering if there were any pranks/tricks that anyone might want to see Ryoga play on Ryoma in the future.

also, Ryoma gains a servant in the next chapter...well, sort-of...you'll just have to wait and see in the next chapter. but, I can tell you that I have made a few changes to my profile page so that when you go to it, you'll see that each of my stories has their own section that will tell the status/progress of the story as well as where I will put links to either music vids, links to pictures and what-not.

anyway, getting to the point, I'm telling you this because when the next chapter is updated (and it is by far the longs chapter yet, and I'm not even done writing it yet) there will be some recipes that I've used in the chapter that I will post the links to if anyone is interested in them.

so, without further adieu, please R&R and give my any suggestions that you think would be funny to see, also Rick makes another appearance in the next chapter, and you get to meet his sister also (hopefully, if everything plans out like it's supposed to) and if not then she will show up in the next chapter after that. :)

please leave me a review or PM me and let me know :D

this'll help me out a lot and hopefully help me update sooner by giving me more inspiration and ideas :)


	4. Chapter 3

**AN:** Hey, SO sorry for the lateness of the chapter; but hey, this one is the longest so far so hopefully that will help appease everyone, will for the most part anyway. Although, I still give you all permission to beat some cyber sense into me for taking so long.

Anyway, without further adieu, here is chapter 3 :D

"Talking"

'Personal thoughts'

**Disclaimer:** I do NOT own Prince of Tennis, Linkin Park, Big Red soda, or Ponta

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Challenges vs Consequences

Chapter 3

(Normal POV)

The next day, Ryoma left his hotel to do a little bit of some shopping for his meals for the next few days. His hotel room had a small kitchen/kitchenette and a refrigerator , so he was able to fix his own meals instead of eating out every day. The problem was, he was running low on food, even though it has only been a week since he had checked into the hotel.

Luckily, there was a supermarket 20 blocks from his hotel. The odd thing was, Ryoma kept getting the feeling that he was being followed; yet each time he turned around, he could not really see anyone, or anything, out of the ordinary. Although, it did not help that it was a busy street during the lunch rush hour.

o0o0o

When, he finally got to the supermarket, he quickly ducked in, slid into an aisle along side the entrance, and waited. He did not have to wait long before a very familiar female walked through the doors.

"Nanako, what are you doing here," Ryoma asked incredulously as he came out of his hiding place.

Nanako jumped when she heard his voice, and slowly turned towards him as he walked up to her. At the annoyed look on his face, she nervously laughed, and rubbed the back of her neck, before answering him.

"Ah, Ryoma-chan. W-what are you doing here?" She managed to stutter out, while taking a hesitant step backwards away from Ryoma.

"I'm here for the US Open as you fully know already. The real question is, what are you doing here?" Ryoma then turned an annoyed/irritated glare onto his cousin before asking, "Did Oyaji send you here to spy on me?"

As Ryoma's left eyebrow started to twitch, Nanako took another hesitant step back before answering his question.

"Actually, I'm here because I was worried about you being on your own for the first time in another country. Therefore, I called a friend of mine, who lives close to where the US Open is being held, to stay with while I am here. Moreover, I overheard Uncle Nanjiro say that he was going to spend the extra money, from you not being there, on buying more of his magazines. Therefore,, I did not want to be there when Auntie Rinko found them, so I decided that I would rather take my chances with you, than with Rinko, while also being able to satiate my worry about your safety. So, you see, I will be killing two birds with one stone." As Nanako was talking, she started to gain confidence and stepped closer to Ryoma until she was, once again, standing in front of him.

The twitching stopped and the annoyed look on Ryoma's face was then replaced, by his usual bored expression, as he became satisfied by her explanation.

"Well, as entertaining as watching Oyaji getting yelled at, I suppose its better if your here. But, you can stay on one condition," he said looking her straight in the eyes.

"And that would be?" She asked nervously, raising an eyebrow at him.

"You have to make me two meals a day until the US Open is finished, unless you leave back to Japan before it's done."

"Huh. Well, fair enough," she said after a short pause. "Plus, hey, I've already got an idea of what to fix you for your first meal."

"As long as it's a Japanese meal with your ***dorai kare**, then I don't care what it is." Ryoma stated bluntly, his face full of skepticism, as Nanako clapped her hands together happily.

"Great! Then be prepared to taste my famous ***sukiyaki** and ***anko oniguri**. Luckily, for you, I already made some anko bean-paste yesterday. **(I will post a link for the sukiyaki recipe, as well as the recipes for the anko bean-paste and the rice ball recipe, on my account page if anyone is interested in learning how to make them. **:) **)** So, all we need to do is get the rest of the ingredients for the rice balls and everything we will need for sukiyaki. Alright?" Nanako asked with a smile, which Ryoma "hn'd" to.

"Alright! Well then, the first thing we need is to see what kind of rice they have here," she said as she grabbed a shopping cart.

"You'll find the rice in aisle 6," said a voice from behind them. Both Ryoma and Nanako turned around to see a brown-haired, red-eyed, teenage boy wearing a Linkin Park T-shirt and jeans.

"Hey," he said waving at them, and at their confused looks, he continued. "You don't remember me, do you squirt?"

"No I don't and don't call me squirt!" Ryoma nearly barked while glaring at the unknown teen.

"Tha' name's Rick, or do you always forget your opponents right after you play against the?" Rick said a little peeved at Ryoma's arrogance. When Ryoma did not reply, and instead started to walk away, Rick continued before he got too far away. "Well, anyway. Just out of curiosity, do you by any chance have an older brother?"

At this, Ryoma stops walking and turns around just in time to see an odd expression pass over Nanako's face that disappeared almost as quickly as it came. Then he looks confusingly from Nanako to Rick, and back to Nanako, before answering Rick's question.

"No, I don't. Why?" He asks, raising an eyebrow in slightly alarmed confusion.

"Just wondering…because, there seems to be a guy following you that looks almost like an older version of you. So, I was wondering if he might be your brother, since he looked way too young to be your father." Rick says with a disappointed, yet confused, expression on his face, then he shrugged his shoulders. "Oh well. Anyway, if you think you might know the guy, he's…hey!"

At that moment, Nanako latched onto Rick's arm and started to drag him farther into the store, saying over her shoulder, "Hey! Why don't you show me where they keep the rice here, since I've never been here before!"

"Wha-? Hey! Let go of my arm!" Rick exclaims as he tries to get Nanako to let go of his arm.

Once they were far enough away from Ryoma, Nanako slowed their progress, and let go of Rick's arm, then turned to face him.

"Look, did this guy seem to have greenish eyes and possibly carrying or eating an orange?" Nanako asked suddenly with a very serious look on her face, which slightly un-nerved Rick.

"Yeah, why?" he said hesitantly, almost taking a step back away from Nanako.

"Because, that 'guy' really _is_ Ryoma's brother; it's just been so long since Ryoma's seen him that he's forgotten that he even has an older brother." At this, Rick's eyes widen in shock.

"So, you're saying he has no memory of this guy at all, let alone that he is his brother!?" Rick asks incredulously.

"Yes, and you mustn't tell him either." Nanako stated, almost pleadingly.

"Why? Why should I _not_ tell him he has a brother? Is there something wrong that I should know about?" Rick asked bewilderedly, yet skeptically.

"No, it's just that…" Suddenly, a commotion behind them kept Nanako from finishing her sentence.

Both teenagers turned to see Ryoma arguing with a girl about his age, wearing her hair in twin braids. Rick let out an exasperated sigh before saying, "Not again."

"You know that girl?" Nanako asked, turning to him.

"Yeah, she's my little sister, and she loves to ambush/stalk my opponents to see what they're like." He said with a hint of annoyance, and a dash of embarrassment. Nanako mouthed the word 'Oh', in slight amusement, as they both headed towards the two feuding adolescence.

(Meanwhile, with Ryoma)

"What do you mean my brother still has a lot of work left to do to improve his skills!" shrieked the mystery girl, with twin braids.

Ryoma just glared back as the girl continued to rant on and on about how good her brother was, and how he should have won against Ryoma yesterday, but that he was just going easy on him.

At this, Ryoma stopped glaring and looked at the girl in confusion.

"You were at the match yesterday?" he asked as he raised one of his eyebrows and slightly tilted his head.

"OK. First off, are you trying to do a puppy-dog-pout? And second, yes I was there, and cheering my brother on," the girl said proudly.

"Did you wear your hair like that yesterday as well?"

"Yep! You like? I got the idea when I saw a girl wearing her hair in twin braids earlier yesterday at the park. I got one of my friends to help me braid it just before your match." The girl said this enthusiastically, with a huge bubbly grin on her face.

When Ryoma did not respond, the girl stopped being hyperactive for a minute, then hit herself in the head.

"Oh, duh! Sorry, I totally forgot to introduce myself," the girl said with a gentle smile as she stretched out her hand to Ryoma. "Hi, my name is…"

"Rita!" Both turned to see Rick and Nanako walking towards them.

"Yay! Big brother, I found you!" the girl, Rita, said as she jumped at Rick and proceeded to give him a hug.

She stopped hugging him, when she noticed Nanako standing next to Ryoma, with an amused grin on her face.

"Rickie, who's this?" Rita asked, looking at Nanako with interest.

"I told you not to call me that." Rick said irritably, with a slight blush.

"Then, can I call you 'Rickie-poo' like your girlfriend does?"

"NO," Rick nearly yells with his hands up in the air, in exasperation, and his face glowing red from a neon blush. "And she isn't my girlfriend."

"Sure she isn't." Rita said with a smirk. "Anyway, are you going to introduce me, or not?"

"Yeah, yeah." Rick says in a defeated sigh, then gestures to Ryoma. "Rita, this is Ryoma Echizen, who I played against yesterday, and this…" Rick stopped when he pointed to Nanako.

"You forgot her name, didn't you Big Red?" Rita asked with a smirk.

"Big Red?" Nanako wonders aloud, while she exchanges a confused glance with Ryoma. Rick just glared at his sister.

"Yeah. That is his nickname, or at least it is what I call him. You see, he is crazy about Big Red soda; I mean, ever since I was little, it was practically the only soda he would drink. Therefore, I started calling him 'Big Red'. I personally prefer Ponta as my favorite soda." Rita said matter-of-factly, yet shyly.

At this, Ryoma's eyebrows slowly, almost imperceptibly, lifted up higher on his forehead.

"Well, anyway, can we go back to the introductions again?" Rita asked sheepishly.

"Oh! Well, I'm Nanako, Ryoma's cousin." Nanako said politely, holding her hand out for Rita.

"Hi, I'm Rita, Rick's little sister." Rita said, shaking Nanako's hand.

"Rick, nice to finally meet you. I saw your match yesterday, and I've gotta say, you held yourself pretty well against Ryoma." Nanako said shaking Rick's hand.

"Thank you." Rick says timidly.

"Well, it's nice to meet you two, but Rick what are you doing here?" Rita's asks suspiciously.

"Well, I ran into them on my way to get some more soda for the house, and agreed to show them where everything is in the store so that they could get their shopping done."

"Oh, well that's cool."

"Hey, why don't both of you join us for lunch? I'll be making a traditional Japanese meal and there will be plenty to go around." Nanako offers cheerily.

"Sure, sounds great." Rick said smiling.

"Awesome! What are you going to be fixing?" Rita says excitedly.

"My famous sukiyaki with anko oniguri for dessert." Nanako said smiling.

"Cool, so what do you still need to get," asked Rick sensibly.

"Let's see…well, I've already made the anko paste, so I just need the Japanese sticky rice for the oniguri. Moreover, for the sukiyaki, I already have the sake, soy sauce, mushrooms, bean sprouts, ***shirataki**, and sugar. Therefore, I just need to get a pound of lean beef, some beef suet, scallions, fresh tofu, and a can of bamboo shoots." Nanako listed off the items as she got a grocery list out of her purse.

o0o0o

Once the shopping was finished, everyone headed back to Ryoma's hotel room, and Rick decided to help Nanako make the sukiyaki. They had decided that Nanako would teach everyone how to make the oniguri after lunch, once her friend dropped off the anko paste she had made the day before.

"Hey Rita, since both you and Ryoma like playing tennis so much, why don't you take Ryoma to the park and play a few rounds with him, while you're waiting for lunch to be fixed." Rick suggested as he cut the tofu; while Nanako prepared the pan for the beef suet, and cut the lean beef into paper-thin slices.

"Sure, come on Ryoma. We can work up our appetites and have some fun all at the same time." Rita said while gesturing for Ryoma to follow her.

o0o0o

As they reached the park, they noticed a person wearing a hoodie, and hitting what looked like an orange ball against a wall.

"Hey, is that an orange that guy is hitting?" Rita asked Ryoma in astonishment, as they got closer to the person.

"Hn." Was Ryoma's only reply as he stared at the person, who must have felt his stare because a few moments later he caught the ball, and turned around to look at them.

"Hey. What's up?" greeted the mystery boy.

The first thing that Rita noticed, was that the guy looked like an older version of Ryoma. Ryoma, who thought the guy looked vaguely familiar, continued to stare at the guy, then glanced down at the ball in the guy's hand.

Both the mystery guy and Ryoma looked like they were about to say something, but Rita beat them to it.

"Were you just hitting an orange against that wall, or was it just an orange-colored ball?" she asked in a somewhat awed state.

The guy just smirked then asked/stated, "Does it really matter?"

"What's your name?" Ryoma asked suspiciously.

"Tell you what, if you can beat me in a one-point match, then I will tell you my name," the guy said with an even bigger smirk on his face.

At this, Ryoma smirked also but, before he could reply, the guy continued.

"But, the catch is that instead of using a regular ball, we have to use this orange ball that I have been using."

Ryoma's smirk fell/faltered slightly, which caused the guy to grin triumphantly. Meanwhile, Rita just stared from one to the other, waiting for Ryoma to say something in response.

"Deal." Ryoma said curtly before all three of them headed to the nearest tennis court.

Unbeknownst to Ryoma and Rita, the mystery guy had switched out his orange-colored ball for an actual orange.

Once Ryoma and the mystery guy were in position, the guy said, "I'll go ahead and serve first."

Then he lightly hit the 'ball' and sent it into a lob over the net. Ryoma smirked and charged the net, then jumped and hit the 'ball' causing it to explode and pulp and juice to hit him in the face.

As Ryoma tried to wipe the stuff off his face, he thought he heard the faint sounds of a shy girl's laughter. However, not just any shy girl's laughter, he thought he heard Sakuno's laughter there for a moment, then Rita was at his side trying to help him clean his face.

Once that was finished, they both looked over at the guy who was smirking hugely by this point. Rita was about to make an outraged retort when the guy interrupted her.

"Well, since you destroyed the only ball I had with me, I guess you won't get to find out what my name is," he said, laughing somewhat, then he started to walk away. Yet, before he got too far away, he yelled over his shoulder, "See you later, Chibisuke."

"Chibisuke?" Rita wondered aloud, but before she could ask the guy what it meant, and who he was talking to, he was already out of sight.

With Ryoma covered in pulp and orange juice, he did not really feel much like playing tennis anymore, so he and Rita decided to head back to the hotel.

As they reached the entrance to the park, Ryoma thought he heard the laughter yet again, so he stopped and tried looking around for its source.

"Hey, Ryoma what's wrong?" Rita asked when she noticed Ryoma was not following her anymore.

However, when he did not respond and continued to look around, she went over to him and gently grabbed his arm.

"Come on, let's get you back so you can clean up and get out of those sticky clothes, before lunch is ready," she said as she slowly pulled him out of the park and in the direction of his hotel.

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**AN:** hey sorry again for the long wait, hopefully this will make you all happy. Anyway, for those of you who have a deviant art account, please message me on deviant art and I will send you a valentines card. However, for those of you who do not, or it is after Feb. 16, then you are still welcome to look at my deviations and feel free to leave a comment on any that you like.

In addition, before I forget, if you have any ideas for any more pranks for Ryoga to play on Ryoma please let me know, and if you also have any ideas of other people, or characters, you would like Ryoma to go up against or would like to show up, please let me know as well.

I love your support, so please **R&R**!

***Dorai Kare** - Fried rice with curry

***Sukiyaki** - A nabe dish prepared with thinly sliced meat, vegetables, mushrooms, tofu and shirataki simmered in sweet soy sauce broth. The pieces of food are dipped into raw beaten egg before being eaten

***Anko** - Sweet red bean paste

***Oniguri** - Rice balls

***Anko Oniguri** - Rice balls filled with red bean paste

***Shirataki** - Yam noodles


End file.
